Drinking with Ji-hee, and Drunken Confessions
After seeing Ji-hee's text, Juhwan and Ji-hee made plans exactly as promised—dinner near campus the following evening, after his lectures were done.
That day happened to be one when So-hee's husband was home, so once Juhwan got back to the apartment, there was no visit from So-hee, and no message either.
*The following evening*
Juhwan sat through his five-to-six o'clock lecture to the very end, packed his bag in the lecture hall, and walked straight to the place where he'd promised to meet Ji-hee.
Crossing the campus's rear gate, the fresh, youthful atmosphere of the university gradually gave way to a hot, buzzing energy that smelled of nothing but bars.
"Oppa! Haha, over here, over here!"
He was almost at the meeting spot when Ji-hee spotted him and waved cheerfully from in front of the bar.
She was wearing a black skirt, black stockings, and a blue shirt.
It was a far cry from the girl he'd first met at the officetel—this was a proper university student now. Even so, her outfit did nothing to hide that figure of hers.
The moment he laid eyes on her, Juhwan's heart began to flutter.
It was definitely a different feeling from what he felt around So-hee.
Unlike the lust-glazed way he looked at So-hee, seeing Ji-hee made something quietly take root in his chest.
It felt like looking at your first love, maybe.
Which made sense—when they'd parted at the officetel after their first meeting, both of them had been left wanting more.
"Oppa, I put a little effort into getting ready today since I was meeting you..... I don't look weird, do I..? Haha"
Weird? She wasn't just not weird—she was pretty. Just plain pretty.
"Yeah... you don't look weird.... You're pretty.."
At that single word—pretty—Ji-hee's face flushed bright red.
About five seconds of awkward silence drifted by.
"..Aigo, what are you saying, Oppa... hahaha"
"Ahem.. anyway, forget it. You're starving, right, Oppa? Let's hurry inside! They say this place has great food too!"
"Anything you want to eat? It's been so long since we saw each other, so today's on me! Haha"
To smooth over the awkwardness, Ji-hee grabbed Juhwan's hand tightly and pulled him into the restaurant.
It was a beer house.
But just as Ji-hee had said, the spread of dishes on the menu was surprisingly varied.
Since they'd met right after his evening lecture, neither of them had eaten dinner yet.
You could argue about whether it was dinner-then-drinks, but honestly, the menu took care of that debate on its own—tteokbokki, fish cake soup, and other dishes hearty enough to double as a full meal alongside the beer.
"I've been going to school all this time and I don't think I've ever been here...... How did you even find this place?"
"Yeah, haha, I used to come here all the time before I took a leave from school to earn money working at the officetel. So? Nice, right?!"
After asking if he liked it, Ji-hee watched his reaction with hopeful eyes.
"...This is beyond nice?!"
"Really?! Phew~ what a relief... I was actually a little worried you wouldn't like it."
The moment Juhwan said it was good, Ji-hee lit up like a child who'd just heard exactly what she'd been hoping for.
Their order arrived—fish cake soup, heart skewers, and beer.
The two of them clinked their glasses together and emptied their first round.
"Um... Oppa..... but I don't even know your name yet.. haha What is it?"
"Oh."
She was right.
At the officetel, only Ji-hee had revealed her real name.
She'd never asked for his back then—neither of them had expected to see each other again.
"God, where's my head... I'm Juhwan. Park Juhwan."
"Park Juhwan... that's such a cool name.. haha"
Ji-hee held up her phone and showed him his saved contact.
On her screen, his number was stored under a single "♥."
"I got your number when I ran into you by chance yesterday, remember? Haha"
"But then I realized I didn't actually know your name..."
"So, for now, I saved it like this. Haha, don't make fun of me lol"
Then Ji-hee picked her phone back up and began editing the contact she'd saved as "♥."
She changed it to "Juhwan Oppa."
The awkwardness from in front of the bar might as well have never existed—the mood between them warmed up fast.
The empty glasses on the table kept multiplying, and the part-timer came by to clear away the empty bottles with increasing frequency.
Unlike that stiff first meeting, the two of them laughed and bantered like old friends.
To be precise, compared to Juhwan's guarded nature, Ji-hee had been open and warm from the very start.
Maybe it was all those years as an officetel girl dealing with countless strange male clients—
the table's atmosphere was, for all intents and purposes, being steered almost entirely by Ji-hee.
The alcohol was slowly creeping into both of them.
The fish cake soup had simmered down to nearly bare pot bottom.
Suddenly, something seemed to occur to Ji-hee, and she looked at Juhwan with a sly gleam in her eyes.
"Oppa.. haha, do you not have a girlfriend, by any chance?"
"Yeah.. haha, I don't."
"Ehh?? Liar! Come on, a guy as handsome as you—how do you not have a girlfriend??"
"Don't ask me things like that... haha And I'm not handsome."
"Yes you are?! The way I see it, you really are good-looking! You're totally my type!"
The moment the words left her mouth, as if she'd blurted out something she never should have said, Ji-hee clapped a hand over her lips, her face going scarlet.
"No—no wait..! I didn't mean anything by it.. Oppa, it's just...! Objectively speaking, you're handsome...!!"
She couldn't even lift her head.
The alcohol had stripped away her filter, and the flirting was pouring out on its own. "......Thank you hahaha"
"..N-no.. it's not even worth thanking me for..."
"But.. what about you? No boyfriend? Honestly, you're really pretty too..."
".....Pretty...? Me?"
The lively atmosphere Ji-hee had worked so hard to build began to grow awkward again.
But neither of them disliked this awkwardness.
Plain awkwardness and awkwardness tinged pink were two very different things.
"...What are you saying, Oppa.. hahaha I'm not pretty... There are girls way prettier than me all over the place..."
"But.. say it again. I want to hear those words... one more time."
The mood turned completely pink.
"...You're pretty." Ji-hee's face turned the color of a boiled beet.
"Hearing that from you, of all people, Oppa... it feels so good..."
After a brief hesitation, Ji-hee tipped back the last of her drink and went on.
"But... I can't really date anyone..... With my past, how could I..."
It sounded like she was talking about her time working at the officetel.
"..What does the past matter... who out there doesn't have one?"
"..Is that really how you see it, Oppa?"
Before he could even answer, Ji-hee kept going.
".....Whatever the reason was, I'm still a woman who did what you'd call dirty work, aren't I?"
"My body's already been dirtied as much as a body can be dirtied...."
She gave a hollow, crooked smile as she said it.
"Haha.. what kind of man would ever understand someone like me, let alone accept me..."
"I guess... I just have to live with it, right..."
Juhwan had been listening seriously—and whether it was the alcohol or not, the words spilled out of him unfiltered too.
"...Who cares about the past.. what matters is who you are now."
"..?"
"If you're going to judge like that, you think I'm some blameless saint? I'm exactly the same as you."
"Meeting you for the first time in a place like that..."
"The way you talk yourself down..... I'm no better than you are."
"And look at me—I'm still living my life, aren't I?"
"The way I see it, you're more than deserving of love.."
"You worked at the officetel because... your parents divorced and you couldn't get support from them, so you were desperate to scrape together tuition. That's all it was."
The instant it left his mouth, he knew he'd screwed up.
The alcohol had made him say the one thing he shouldn't have.
Ji-hee's family problems...
"Ah........ I'm sorry.... what I just said..."
Before he knew it, tears were welling up in Ji-hee's eyes.
She hung her head low and said nothing.
Then, finally, her shoulders began to shake, and she broke down.
"...Sob... sniff....."
It was excruciating.
Theirs had been the liveliest table in the whole bar, but now it felt like a funeral parlor.
As Ji-hee hiccupped and wept, the part-timers and the other customers started shooting glances their way.
"....I'm sorry........ I said something I never should have said..."
He moved to her side and patted her back gently, but her sobs showed no sign of stopping.
All Juhwan could do was keep patting her back and quietly stay by her side.
Ji-hee sat there crying quietly for a long while—it took roughly ten minutes for her tears to finally run dry.
"...Oppa, should we get going now?"
"Yeah, let's go" was all he could manage.
He wanted to die. In that moment, all he could think was that one careless comment about her family had wrecked everything, and the self-loathing gnawed at him.
Juhwan got up and went to the counter to pay the bill, while Ji-hee wiped the tear-streaked mess from her face with her hands,
smoothed down her clothes, picked up her bag, and rose to her feet.
*Outside the bar*
The two of them walked side by side without a word.
Keeping a slight distance between them.
With no destination in mind, they simply headed toward the main road, where they might find a taxi.
"......Oppa."
"Yeah....."
Then Ji-hee grabbed the hem of his jacket and tugged him closer.
".....There's a park over there.... Let's walk a little and get some fresh air... I think I'm drunk..."
"Yeah.... okay."
They reached the park.
A bench came into view, and Juhwan sat Ji-hee down on it for a moment.
"Ji-hee, wait here and rest for a bit. I'll be right back."
"........"
Leaving her sitting there in silence, Juhwan walked away.
He was headed for the convenience store at the park entrance.
(You absolute fucking idiot........ why did you have to bring that up.....)
Juhwan kept berating himself for ruining the mood.
He bought a hangover relief drink at the store and walked back into the park to find Ji-hee.
She was still sitting on the bench, waiting for him alone.
He sat down beside her and silently handed her the drink.
Ji-hee stared at it for a moment, then reached out and took it.
"...Thank you."
"It's nothing..."
"But why did you only buy one? Where's yours?"
"I'm fine..."
"...Damn it.. what is this........ I was going to pay for the bar too, but you covered everything..."
"And now you bought my hangover drink with your own money too..."
Ji-hee clutched the bottle tightly in both hands.
"....I'm the one who's sorry... I brought up something I shouldn't have..."
"..No, you didn't... it was the truth, after all... It's not your fault, Oppa. It was just something that happened to me."
"..Still, I shouldn't have blurted it out like that without thinking..."
"....."
A brief silence, then Ji-hee spoke again.
"Oppa."
"Yeah?"
"Then can I ask you just one thing?"
"Yeah. Go ahead."
"You remember when we first met, right? The reason you came looking for me."
The reason he'd first come looking for her.
Of course he remembered.
Back then, Juhwan had been coming apart at the seams—not just from pent-up lust, but from the upstairs neighbor's noise and So-hee's constant condescension grinding his sanity down.
He'd booked the officetel to meet Ji-hee as a kind of rehearsal, to practice doing something terrible to So-hee.
Of course he remembered. He just hadn't imagined Ji-hee still remembered it too.
"........Did you do it..? To that woman upstairs..?"
"........"
He hesitated.
Should he be honest? Or should he lie and brush it off?
Given the current mood, telling the truth felt like the worst possible move.
"...I didn't...... You asked me not to, remember..."
"...Right... that's true... I did say that, didn't I..."
"......Then it's fine that you didn't... I knew I could read people after all."
Night fell, and a chilly wind swept over the two of them.
"...I'm cold..."
"..I could take off my jacket, hold on—"
"No."
After saying no, she let go of every last shred of pride and added one more thing.
"...Hold me."
His heart began pounding like a drum.
But there was no choice.
If he refused to even hold her, the mood wouldn't just be wrecked—it would go nuclear.
Juhwan quietly wrapped his arms around Ji-hee.
".....You're right, Oppa... after my parents divorced, I couldn't get any real support, so I earned my tuition alone and tried to pay off the loans. That's why I did that work."
"And yet you remembered all of that....."
"On one hand it moved me, and on the other, I felt so pathetic about myself.. that's why I cried..."
"The mood was so good back at the bar... and I went and ruined it by crying... I'm sorry, Oppa."
It was completely unexpected.
Juhwan was the one who'd made the mistake, yet here was Ji-hee, apologizing for ruining the atmosphere with her tears.
"..No... you know it wasn't your fault..."
"..I don't know why I'm like this when I'm around you..."
"You were my last customer on my last day of work... you know that, right?"
"After you left that day..... I regretted it a lot, actually?"
"I should have at least asked for your number... you seemed like such a good person... we could've stayed in touch..."
"But... I couldn't do it, could I..."
Tears welled up in her eyes again as she spoke.
"....I was sure that to you, I'd just look like a dirty woman..."
"But... back at the bar, when you told me no one's without a past, that I was a good person... I was genuinely happy..."
Her tears stopped, and forcing a smile, she looked up at Juhwan and kept going.
"Haha.... and honestly? The sex with you that day... it was the best sex I've ever had haha!!"
He flinched in shock.. Sex? Out of nowhere?
Was he supposed to thank her for that?
".........No matter what I do right now... you'll just let it slide because I'm drunk.. won't you..?"
"I've... never been like this with anyone before? I don't even know what's gotten into me tonight..."
"If you don't want this, you can push me away.. no, don't push me away.... If you push me away, I'll never see you again...."
What does she mean, whatever I do?
He had a guess, but right now, all of a sudden..?
But reason had long since drowned—both of them were drunk on liquor and atmosphere.
*Shuuup*
Without waiting for Juhwan's answer, Ji-hee moved in first and kissed him.
Their tongues slid into each other's mouths and tangled together, and soon the only sound on that bench was the sloppy, wet smacking of kisses.
Ji-hee wound both arms around Juhwan's neck and kept kissing him, again and again.
A little later, the two of them finally managed to tear their lips apart.
"....I want to give you my body again... to you, Oppa... please accept it... even someone like me..."
"........"
*Thirty minutes later, a nearby motel*
The moment the motel door swung open, without even bothering to strip off their clothes at the entryway, the two of them locked into another animalistic kiss.
Still wrapped in each other's arms, kissing, they gradually worked their way toward the bed.
*Thud*
Ji-hee fell onto the bed first and spread both arms wide toward Juhwan.
"Oppa.... come to me.. hurry... I can't take it anymore."